High intellect and deep meaning below surface level verbiage in rap lyrics is unfortunately a rarity these days. After listening to the latest project from Nanigan Nickleby "Yonder & Elsewhere", I really appreciate his high level rhyming skills. I'm a firm believer that It shouldn't' take way too many words to convey a solid point, and that's precisely what Nanigan does with this compact 7 track body of work. If you are a fan of complex rhyme schemes, unorthodox rap cadences, and dark boom bap instrumentation, I'd highly recommend this EP. The Washington DC based emcee is accompanied by Nigerian born/ Irish schooled producer TOKYO CIGAR to present this sophomore project. Nanigan Nickleby uses "Yonder & Elsewhere" to speak his unique truth and perspective of the world we live in.
"I Mean there's no chance no community chest/ just ruthless bits of truth as the food to ingest"
Nanigan Nickleby - The W.I.N
Nanigan Nickleby "Yonder & Elsewhere" | Rap Nerd Review
The project opens up with "The W.I.N". I'm assuming the acronym stands for "wild innocent and nauseated" after hearing those words toward the end of the song. The feeling is dark yet victorious, and the drums hit hard midway through. This track is surely one of the stand outs. On track 2, "Westerberg", I love the beautiful light hearted boom bap beat! This one is a little difficult to dissect, but It sounds as though Nanigan Nickleby is rapping in the character of someone who is chronically pessimistic. A reoccurring theme in the project is death, and cats. There's also a cat shown on the back cover of the EP. I'm not exactly sure what that means either. Tracks 3 and 4, "Yonder" and "The Lazzaretto Dispatch", are surely my two favorites on the project! The awesome production and sharp flows on these got me really paying attention now. The beat switch toward the end of track 4 was crazy dope along with a glimpse into how Nanigan Nickleby feels:
"Lost time at the end of an endless search, do I dare disturb the universe?"
Nanigan Nickleby - "The Lazzaretto Dispatch"
It seems to me like Nanigan is quite inquisitive. Track 5, "Elsewhere", poses the spiritual question "What condition is my condition in?/ What religion will let my spirit win?". This is a question I've often wondered myself, and can surely relate to. There is an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, so how will we know who was correct? I guess we stay tuned for the answer to that. Track 6 features TOKYO CIGAR and is called "Coffee". The smooth feel of this beat paired with the fire bars represent pure audio excellence. The bar that caught my attention most on this one was:
"What am I but a ground level pigeon, cursed with human condition" - Nanigan Nickleby & TOKYO CIGAR - "Coffee"
The EP closes with Track 7 titled "Prizes". This song has my favorite flow cadence. The beat is dramatic and bouncy. Nickleby holds nothing back on this song going crazy with the wordplay. It wasn't until this track that I think I may have the overall theme of the project figured out. I believe it's about a person in a human body who lived a past life as as a cat, or vice versa. There is a chance I could be totally wrong about this lol. I'd love to hear an explanation from Nanigan Nickleby himself for clarification. The lyrics are hard to decode, even after I listened to the project in its entirety multiple times. Nonetheless, this is a great sophomore EP from Nanigan Nickleby, and I do recommend you all give it a spin!
Find this artists at all of the following links:
Sincerely,
D-Sick aka "Rap Nerd"
Rap Nerd Rating (4 out of 5)
written by Derek "Rap Nerd" Moore
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